1. USP9X deubiquitylating enzyme maintains RAPTOR protein levels, mTORC1 signalling and proliferation in neural progenitors
- Author
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Lachlan A. Jolly, Jozef Gecz, Deepti Domingo, Bernadette Bellette, Susitha Premarathne, Stephen A. Wood, Dusan Zencak, Mariyam Murtaza, Caitlin R. Bridges, Men Chee Tan, and Devathri Nanayakkara
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Science ,mTORC1 ,Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 1 ,Biology ,Article ,Cell cycle phase ,Mice ,03 medical and health sciences ,Neural Stem Cells ,Neurosphere ,Endopeptidases ,Animals ,Humans ,Cell Self Renewal ,Progenitor cell ,Multidisciplinary ,HEK 293 cells ,Cell Cycle Checkpoints ,Regulatory-Associated Protein of mTOR ,Embryonic stem cell ,Neural stem cell ,Cell biology ,HEK293 Cells ,030104 developmental biology ,Proteolysis ,Cancer research ,Medicine ,Ubiquitin Thiolesterase ,Neural development ,Signal Transduction - Abstract
USP9X, is highly expressed in neural progenitors and, essential for neural development in mice. In humans, mutations in USP9X are associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. To understand USP9X’s role in neural progenitors, we studied the effects of altering its expression in both the human neural progenitor cell line, ReNcell VM, as well as neural stem and progenitor cells derived from Nestin-cre conditionally deleted Usp9x mice. Decreasing USP9X resulted in ReNcell VM cells arresting in G0 cell cycle phase, with a concomitant decrease in mTORC1 signalling, a major regulator of G0/G1 cell cycle progression. Decreased mTORC1 signalling was also observed in Usp9x-null neurospheres and embryonic mouse brains. Further analyses revealed, (i) the canonical mTORC1 protein, RAPTOR, physically associates with Usp9x in embryonic brains, (ii) RAPTOR protein level is directly proportional to USP9X, in both loss- and gain-of-function experiments in cultured cells and, (iii) USP9X deubiquitlyating activity opposes the proteasomal degradation of RAPTOR. EdU incorporation assays confirmed Usp9x maintains the proliferation of neural progenitors similar to Raptor-null and rapamycin-treated neurospheres. Interestingly, loss of Usp9x increased the number of sphere-forming cells consistent with enhanced neural stem cell self-renewal. To our knowledge, USP9X is the first deubiquitylating enzyme shown to stabilize RAPTOR.
- Published
- 2017
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